Spotlight 111-250610

Good morning. What we’re covering in today’s Spotlight:

The Fight over a Grove Ride Service
A New Top Cop for the Grove
Goombay 2025 (in pictures)
New Rules to Allow Bigger Buildings near Transit
Developers Win: PZAB Splits a Property

Freebee Cries Foul Over Grove’s On-Demand Transit Dea l

The electric shuttle service, which ran a popular pilot program moving riders around the Grove for free, says it lost out on a new two-year contract because of a deeply flawed and unfair bidding process.

By Francisco Alvarado

A battery-charged fight is brewing in the streets of Coconut Grove over who gets to help relieve the central business district of its traffic woes.

Freebee, a Miami-based on-demand transit provider, is crying foul after the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District (BID) tapped a competitor – Fort Lauderdale’s Circuit – to ferry riders around the Grove’s bustling business corridor. The decision, Freebee executives say, is a snub that will cost taxpayers money.

For years, South Florida cities have sought to ease congestion and parking headaches by deploying fleets of electric vehicles, offering residents and visitors rides for free or for a nominal fare.

Earlier this year the Coconut Grove BID – a semi-autonomous city agency – selected Circuit to provide these services for the next two years by “piggybacking” on an existing contract the company holds with the City of Hollywood.

The move was designed to expedite the process as the Grove faces the looming closure of a key parking lot adjacent to the Coconut Grove Playhouse.

Grove’s Top Cop Steps Dow n

Citing “the politics of policing,” Coconut Grove Police Commander Daniel Kerr has given up the position he’s filled for the past three years, making way for 27-year police veteran and former Grove resident Freddie Cruz.

By Jenny Jacoby

Miami Police Commander Daniel Kerr, known for his non-traditional, community-oriented approach to policing, has stepped down from his post as the top cop in Coconut Grove after three years on the job.

Kerr did not specify the exact reason to self-demote – a rare move in the police department – but claimed it was his own decision prompted by “philosophical differences” with his department’s leadership and the “politics of policing.”

“My greatest regret, and probably the reason I hung around longer than I wanted to, was my love for the Grove and the people in it,” Kerr said in an interview with the Spotlight. “I really do love it. I love the cops there.”

Kerr’s replacement, Commander Freddie Cruz, took over on June 1. Cruz has served for 27 years with the City of Miami Police Department, including stints as a commander in Edgewater, Little Havana and Wynwood. He most recently served as director of the department’s Public Information Office.

Goombay Rocks the Grove

A photo album from this year’s festival.

Goombay, the annual festival celebrating the cultural connection between Coconut Grove and the Bahamas, returned to Grand Avenue in the West Grove over the weekend with music performances, food trucks and (of course) Junkanoo.

The event kicked off on Friday night with a Junkanoo Jump-Off along Grand Avenue and a neighborhood party at Armbrister Park.

Here are some photos (and a short video) from Friday night’s celebration.

Continue to Photos…

City to Consider New Rules to Supersize Development Near Transit Hubs

A Thursday commission vote authorizing a new land-use designation will kick off a far-reaching program to bring the city’s zoning code more in line with county rules that encourage taller, denser buildings up to one mile from fixed-rail stations such as Metrorail.

By David Villano

The Miami City Commission will vote Thursday on the first phase of a far-reaching plan to dramatically increase development densities in neighborhoods that surround Metrorail stations and other transit hubs.

The plan, as outlined by city planning officials, would allow, under some conditions, high-rise towers as tall as 12 stories on properties now limited to five, and more than double that in other areas.

Officials say the changes are necessary to provide a city-backed development alternative within neighborhoods where Miami-Dade County zoning rules supersede the city’s more restrictive code.

Those county rules, known as Rapid Transit Zoning or RTZ, have been criticized by both residents and city officials for promoting unchecked growth that is out-of-scale with surrounding areas.

Thursday’s vote — to create a new transit-linked zoning designation known as Transit Oriented Nodes — will be paired with pending zoning rule changes that planners have dubbed Transit Station Neighborhood Development, or TSND.

PZAB Agrees to Split South Grove Property

The developers who sought to divide the property prevailed last week in a contested vote, over the objections of Miami’s professional planning staff and a large contingent of angry neighbors.

By Jenny Jacoby

Is lot-splitting the favorite tactic of developers who want to maximize their space to build in Coconut Grove?

It may seem so after Miami’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB) agreed last week to split a 21,000-square-foot property into three building sites, against the advice of the city’s professional planners and over the strong objections of disgruntled neighbors.

The South Grove property at 4055 Poinciana Ave. is composed of three platted lots but had historically been united as one building site with one single-family home since 1947 when Harry Truman lived in the White House.

The property sold for $1.9 million in 2021, according to county property records, and then again in 2023, when 4055 Poinciana Ave LLC, a Miami Beach company managed by Ramiro Cuellar and Marvin Colegial, paid $2.7 million for the land.

The developers then sought a warrant to split the property into three 7,000-square-foot building sites facing Poinciana Avenue so they could build one house on each lot.

The concept was rejected by neighbors who worried the split would hurt the tree canopy, add more cars to the street, and squish even more density into a part of the Grove that’s already bracing for the addition of several large apartment complexes.